I think many articles make the front page not because they're good, nor because they represent a 'HN consensus', but because the discussion is interesting. I at least often find myself upvoting a link because I thought the discussion was worth upvoting.

Judging by the predominantly negative comments in this thread, I think that's the case here.

For the record, I didn't submit this because I agree with him.

Perhaps made it to highlight said drivel? I upvoted for that reason.

The context here is super important - Joe Ricketts, who owns DNAInfo and Gothamist, just shut them down today entirely, firing everyone and taking all their content offline. Worth noting that this happened after employees voted to unionize. I think that's why this is getting upvoted now.

Huh I missed that (on day 4 of a road trip atm), thanks, that makes this even more interesting.